2014 Monaco Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg says he can easily prove he did not deliberately cause a yellow flag during qualifying at Monaco to take pole position.

Rosberg is under investigation by the stewards after going off at Mirabeau on his last lap during Q3. That brought out the yellow flags, which meant team mate Lewis Hamilton was unable to beat his time.

The incident drew comparisons with Michael Schumacher parking his car at Rascasse during qualifying in 2006 in a bid to secure pole. Schumacher was judged to have done so deliberately and was sent to the back of the grid.

Rosberg told reporters after qualifying he had not done the same: “It’s easy for me to show that because it will be clear in the data that nothing’s majorly different from the lap before,” he said.

“I just braked that little bit late and deep and locked up and that’s it.”

Rosberg said he apologised to Hamilton because his error spoiled his team mate’s lap.

“Of course it’s not the way I want it to go,” he said . “I honestly thought that it was over when I went off the road so that definitely takes away some of the pleasure of it.”

“But in the end you know first is first so I’m still very happy about it.”

Rosberg said he was risking everything on his final run because he expected Hamilton to improve.

“My first lap, I really nailed that one, I was on it. I had a mega banker and I just needed to go for it because I knew Lewis was going to be close, track improving ever so slightly so I just had to go for it and I just exaggerated a little bit, unfortunately”.

“I think in Monaco the most important thing is starting from pole and I managed to do that so that’s the most important and I think the best position to be in for the race tomorrow,” he added.

“It’s still going to be a very tough race: really long, and also with tyres. And starts have been our weakness also as a team so we definitely need to concentrate and get that right and see how it goes.”

For me the bigger issue is his reversing back onto the track. When Hamilton comes through, he’s reversed into a much worse position to where he had initially finished. I think he should have sat and waited, or pulled forward more to try remove the yellow. He must have known if he reverses he will be causing trouble for the cars behind. I’m still in two minds as to if he did or didn’t do the initial incident on purpose, but I think he should be given a penalty for his needless reversing.

Hopefully this is what will happen, I think it would be best for everyone. Forget about whether he spun off on purpose or not – reversing back into the track during the peak final minutes of qualifying, provoking a yellow, should count as ruining everyone’s fast lap, causing an automatic penalty. It doesn’t matter if the ‘error’ of reversing was deliberate or not, it was a mistake, unnecessary and dangerous.

A Yellow flag isn’t removed when the driver just stays where he is you know. If Rosberg could have ended up there, any other driver locking up could end up in the back of Rosberg = danger in the marshal’s eyes = yellow flag. Reversing under yellow flags isn’t worth a penalty, it happens all the time in Monaco, now it was just at the most unfortunate moment. So even if he reversed in the alley, Hamilton’s lap would still have been compromised, because the yellows were there for ‘Rosberg-in-the-alley’ not for ‘Rosberg-reversing-in-the-alley’.

I don’t think you got my point. I think it would be better for team harmony that Rosberg takes and accepts a penalty for non-deliberate obstruction, putting aside any question of whether his actions were deliberate.

So Rosberg should receive a penalty because otherwise Hamilton will have a tantrum? That doesn’t seem like promoting team harmony to me. If Rosberg simply made a driving mistake then there should be no penalty. Unless you think that any time a driver causes a yellow flag they should be penalised for causing an obstruction.

it would be better for team harmony that Rosberg takes and accepts a penalty for non-deliberate obstruction

Rosberg doesn’t give a damn about team harmony if it means getting any sort of penalty, especially in Monaco. If Hamilton was in Rosberg’s shoes he would gladly put his team before himself an accept the penalty, euhhh.. nope. Driver’s championships matter for these guys at the end of the day, not the Constructor that supplies there car..

Fully agree! Off track excursion might be a genuine racing incident and could be pardoned but reversing back into the track at that point is a bigger offence than an impeding or crossing the white line while exiting the pits during a race which are always penalized. IMO, Rosberg should be penalized for the reversing which he did consciously and not for going off

And I think if that was key it was up to the marshals to make him stay put. NR thought it was over for him ie. must have thought no need for yellow which would have made the others have to lift, so when he realized they threw the yellow he probably figured reversing would not change anything. It’s not like he was trying to reverse to block someone.

He reversed but was still on the escape road when the others came past. He didn’t re-enter the track until the track was clear so his reversing was basically fine. Under waved yellows so no danger of the other cars running off. It seems to me that he followed procedures. Unless he did something he was told not to by the marshals but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

It’s a trick one, I think finding a rule which states he deserves a penalty will be hard. But I do 100% believe there was no need to him to reverse at that point. Stay still for the 25 seconds and then reverse. There’s no need to put himself in a more dangerous position when he knows cars will be coming round. If he knew the yellows would stay out regardless then he must also know reversing will do nothing to solve the problem, whereas pulling forward just might.

Sorry but this is pretty ridiculous. If we were talking about any other situation then I can’t imagine anyone suggesting that a driver should basically drive his completely I damaged car literally out of the other end of the escape road just because it would clear the yellow flags quicker. He had every right to turn the car around and get it going again, just as every driver does. He’s not the only driver to go off there, and yet I see no suggestion that the other drivers were doing anything wrong by recovering back onto the track.

Because they had something to gain, Rosberg didn’t. His session was done. over. All he could do was cause pain to others. Even if he got back as quick as possible it would have no affect on his qualifying. There was no rush for him to get back on track, so why reverse into a worse position when he knows his team mate is coming ? You say he has every right to reverse, but he didn’t. He Knew reversing wouldn’t improve the situation. Ok, so say he may have known staying still or pulling forward wouldn’t also, but he would have 100% known he couldn’t reverse out before Hamilton came around. That means he chose to reverse knowingly he will end in a worse position than he was originally in.

Again, though, you’re assuming there was an alternative which would have instantly cleared the yellow flags. Unless it was made explicitly clear that this was the case in the drivers briefing, then there’s no reason why he was decide to do that. For all he knew it didn’t matter whether he drove to the end of the escape road or jumped out of the car and danced the Macarena in the middle of the track. If the only way to clear the yellow flag was to get back onto the track as quickly as possible, then he did absolutely the right thing. We are only speculating that he was doing something contrary to procedure. We don’t know that. The stewards are the only ones qualified to make that judgement.

But why reverse then and not in a couple of minutes? Moving the car closer to the track wasn’t making the situation safer but the opposite. And when he started reversing, how could anyone be sure he would stop? Doesn’t wash at all.

If he’d have sat on the escape road for a couple of minutes then there would have been yellow flags for a couple of minutes. They don’t stop waving flags when a car is stationary on the runoff area, especially in Monaco!

And if the flags continued longer because he reversed then it was up to the marshals to keep him where he was, and the team would also have told him to stay put if it would have helped LH get a clean lap in. If it is about NR’s proximity to the track, meaning he was far enough away for the flags to be stopped sooner, why were the flags waved to begin with? NR certainly seems happily surprised, because he thought he was done and pole was LH’s.

I’m not saying I know better. I’m saying that Rosberg himself probably does. After all, he’s the one who goes to the driver briefings where recovery procedures are covered at length. So unless they were told in the driver briefing that, if the go off at Mirabeau, they must drive down to the end of the escape road and it’ll stop the flags, then I can’t see any reason why he would think that was the right thing to do.

And I think there was a lot of disagreement between commentators, who couldn’t achieve any kind of consensus between them despite having decades of Motorsport experience between them. Maybe it was different if you watched the BBC show.

@f190 I too think it’s the issue here and that could cost Nico something. I think for Lewis the best way to resolve this would be beating Nico tomorrow without any penalties. Nico made a mistake and eventually a silly move that cost Lewis a potential pole position but did he really wanted to stop Lewis? If so it’s a disgrace but I’d rather see Lewis beat Nico starting from P2 than anything else.

@jcost Yeah I am really pumped up now .I somehow feel there is more to it . The merc looked so stable .why so many direction changes to the steering wheel ? Lewis to beat Nico tomorrow from p2. C’mon man .

Problem now is in Lewis’ eyes, it was not so honest mistake, so he will not play honest either, probably, he will kamikaze into the corner unless team resolves the matter at the garage tonite… If team doesnt solve the problem at the garage, season will turn into more fierce “who is the boss” game…

@hamilfan sure he can beat Nico, but it’s Monaco. I would not try anything stupid to win the 7th race of the year when I could secure P2. His car is still the best out there and I think is better than Nico and more often than not he will beat him.

I must admit I found it very cringe-worthy. OK, he did a great job in the first lap, but he was effectively celebrating a mistake or a fix. I’m still unsure if Hamilton would have got pole anyway, but I think out of respect for ruining other peoples laps and the fans enjoyment, he could have had more muted celebration.

Unless his celebration was because he knew he did nothing wrong other than to go for it…thought he was toast once he went off…got lucky that they threw the yellow when he seemingly wouldn’t have been surprised if they didn’t throw it, and therefore is putting it on the stewards or marshals that he got the pole and therefore fair is fair.

I also think LH would have celebrated similarly if the positions were reversed, and it would have been just as debatable, only with perhaps the difference being it would have been put down to LH playing mind games with NR to celebrate as such.

+1,
I have replayed this piece of qualifying video at-least 5 times and Nico’s caliber driver could have easily avoided this. German who is perceived as smart guy should show his smartness on track rather doing this dirty things. He lost the little respect was left.

@David BR2 And some have called that mind games of the LH variety. You were faster than me but I humbly beat you anyway. Besides, NR says he apologized to LH, and that was probably immediately on the radio through the team, and again, in the same circumstances which to me is one where NR thinks he is completely innocent, I think LH would have also felt completely innocent of any wrongdoing and would have celebrated the same way therefore. Anything different and NR wouldn’t have celebrated this way, nor would LH have.

Pretty sure the mentality when starting a lap in these circumstances is ‘all or nothing’, just go absolutely ballistic and likely you’ll either go faster, or make a genuine mistake to create problems and confusion.
Win win.

The funny fact is: in hardcore hip-hop culture (of yesteryear at least) doing bad things – things that most society would perceive as bad for ones reputation – is good because you get more “street cred”…

@f190 What’s interesting is where do the team stand on this? Why did Nico back up so soon? Why didn’t the team advise him he’s teammate was coming? If Lewis was in Ricciardo track posi, he wouldn’t have received the yellows….

I think a penalty could be even worse for the team because it would be “the official recognition” that Nico Rosberg cheated to harm his teammate. If Nico goes away with it, the team and Nico himself can defend his manoeuvre by claiming “stewards did not find anything wrong”. But either way, Nico’s reputation has been tarnished and Hamilton is the ultimate winner of this controversy. If Lewis goes to Canada and wins the GP on merit, his fan will say he only has been beaten when absent (retired in Australia) or “robbed” in Monaco… so if I was Lewis I would focus is securing a podium finish tomorrow and strike back in Canada.

If he hadn’t reversed then he’d have just been sat in the runoff area with the yellow flags waving. If he’d have tried to make the corner he’d have hit the barrier. Either way, as soon as he missed his braking point, the drivers behind him were going to be held up. The best thing he could do is exactly what he did – get the car turned around and back on track as quickly as was safely possible.

I’m not sure where this idea comes from that there wouldn’t have been yellow flags if he’d have just stopped on the escape road. That just seems like nonsense.

2007 HUNGARY? Alonso was the one who did the dubious thing.
As about liegate. Lot’s of fuss over nothing because in the end that position was his.
So whether he lied or not he was still just because they screwed him when they instructed him to let Trulli by when he had a right to the position.
So yes, as it goes to on track racing he never pulled a dubious move.

Nice how precedent works, huh? had Schumi not parked his Fezza at Rascasse, we’d not be looking into this in such detail.

TBH, him reversing back into the track seems so unnecessary. The qualy was about to finish, there was no need to get the car out of a there so quickly in such a difficult way… but I hope it’s ruled as a genuine mistake.

He couldn’t really rejoin and start moving forwards until all the cars on hot laps had passed anyway. Reversing and sitting there for a while wouldn’t achieve anything different to waiting further down the escape road.

In regards to the reversing, if him being at the end of the escape route would have still warranted yellows being out, him reversing actually meant that a few of them got to do flying laps that they wouldn’t have otherwise…. It’s a very tough call without knowing what info he had and what instructions (or lack of) the marshals gave him whilst he was in the escape road….

Maybe in the braking zones he was fine, but that weaving left and right was so strange that it could be noticed by an 8 years old child, BTW he never tried to force the car into the corner as it’s the case when a tyre locked up, instead he waited until the tyre locks and then he went lefthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrqqltuXPc4
BTW it took 8 hours for the stewards in 2006 to disqualify Michael.

I just saw the same thing, you can tell that he’s not even trying to make the corner. If you’re on a flyer, going for Pole, you would never attack that section as gingerly as he did. I’m not going to go as far as to say that he deserves to be penalized, or calling it a Schumacher, but that was pretty obvious. And Hamilton will definitely remember that tomorrow as both cars sail into Sainte Devote.

Wish I could stick around all day for this debate but gotta go. I believe NR. That is my bottom line on this. I believe he made a genuine mistake doing the very thing we expected he and LH to be doing…going for it. I believe that if reversing mattered the marshals should have stopped him and at the same time the team could have radio’d the same message. He didn’t even expect the yellow and thought he was done and pole would be LH’s. Reversing didn’t change anything as the session was for all intents and purposes over, or at least there would be no way for NR to know who was where on the track without radio comm telling him and guiding him on what he should do. He reversed, but nobody stopped him from doing so. If they hadn’t thrown the yellow it would have been because he was far enough off the track, in which case they (marshals and especially his team) would have made absolutely sure he stayed put to let the others do their laps.

if he has to resort to that then Lewis is definitely in his head, personally i don’t think he’s clever enough to fake brake effort lift off acceleration etc the data is available to the stewards to check.

Supposing that the stewards do nothing, let’s not forget that there’s still a race to be run. Given Hamilton’s better starting form this year, I can see there being a bit of a battle for that first corner and, now that we have some genuine heat injected into the situation, it all points towards a big pile-up tomorrow morning…

My question is what Mercedes do – i.e. how they play it with the stewards. Judging by Lauda’s comments, they’re going with the line that Rosberg made a genuine mistake (or two). I’m sure they prefer 1 and 2 on the grid, and may even say to Hamilton it’s better for them both to act as cover to each other in the race, whichever way round they finish. Will Hamilton be convinced? Will Mercedes worry much if he isn’t convinced? Possibly – precisely because of the pile-up scenario you paint…

Mistakes or deliberate a driver must be penalised, if he benefits from such a situation. We all look forward to the excitements Q3 bring. In particular, towards the end of Q3 when all timings are coming in. This sort of ‘dubious mistakes’ spoil that thrill of Q3.
This can not be good for F1. I think NR must be penalised, since he benefits from his own mistake…

I’m sorry but what you say doesn’t really make much sense. You only punish someone if there’s proof that he/she’s guilty of something. Doesn’t matter how dubious the mistake seems to be, people with far more expertise than us spectators/fans declared he didn’t do it on purpose.

That’s not true at all. Drivers are often penalised in Formula 1 for mistakes that ended up costing other drivers – e.g. causing a collision. You don’t think drivers deliberately cause collisions do you? (other than Maldonado) In this case Rosberg not only cost other drivers, but also benefitted himself.

He should have been penalised for that alone. But in my opinion, watching his bizarre steering inputs and approach to the corner, it’s quite obvious that this was deliberate, so he should be very penalised indeed for that.

Well, can’t really ague with that. But even so, the decision from stewards had to be within the defined set of rules, if not then the authority is given only to people(stewards) with true expertise.
I’m more interested to know how the rules permit a driver reversing in Q3, in a street circuit. It was just not right, that I’m sure of. But I don’t have access to the telemetry data, so can’t declare anything based on what could be seen on TV.

But, my point is who benefits from the mistake. If you benefit from your own mistake in my judgement that is a ‘punishable mistake’, in particular when stakes are so high. Most car accidents are result of drivers’ mistakes, but one can not stand in front of a judge and say sorry I made a mistake and therefore I should not be punished…